Perspectives

The so-called “settlement process” which began with PKK (Kurdistan Workers' Party) leader Abdullah Öcalan’s letter dated Mart 21, 2013 triggered debates in Kurdish organizations other than PKK. Kurdish movements small or big, which are a distant to PKK, initially approached Öcalan’s letter “with a prudent optimism”.

With the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers in the USA on 15 September 2008, it was announced that the onset of the fourth major crisis in the history of capitalism commenced. When the crisis erupted, its causes were analyzed on three different levels: structural dynamics, institutional arrangements and certain choices with respect to political economy.1 We need to simultaneously elaborate on these three levels in order to grasp both the origins and current advance of the global crisis. 

The G20, shorthand for Group 20, is considered to be one of the most significant conferences of the world leaders. Leaders of the world’s largest economies come together each year to talk about how to boost the global economy and reduce the barriers to international trade and economic development.  

Today, especially in light of the Gezi Uprising of last year, it appears that humor lives in and through social media. Magazines could not deal with television, and they could not keep up with the oppositional humor that was evolving by the minute in social media. To be fair, they are not leading this humor, they contribute to it, but they could not become its guiding force or pulling force.

Series were born in this “it is all for commercials” environment and were given a name reminiscent of the radio period: Soap opera. Not because they were light like soap bubbles and disappeared when they popped but because they were produced by soap companies themselves!

The accession of Turkey to the EU has traditionally been an important topic for right-wing and far-right campaigns. This time, even though it did appear in the context of immigration and prejudices against Islam, it did not play a major role in the campaigns. That does not mean, though, that Turkey will be off the far-right agenda. Quite the opposite, Turkey for them is a symbol of many things they are against: migrants and Muslims.

Clearly, the most important trigger issue for Turkey had been the Kurdish question. In a Syria undergoing regime change, Turkey wanted to be on the good side of the potential new rulers from the start. Through first the Foreign Ministry , and later all its units, it started taking into its ambit all Syrian opposition, first the Muslim Brotherhood and the National Council, and then the pro-Al Qaida Al Nusra Front and Iraq Damascus Islamic State.

Since the year 2012 when privatization gained speed, the share of the public sector has shrunk while that of the private sector has rapidly grown in terms of both installed capacity and generation.